Esko shared its flexo technological know-how and market insights driven by trends, such as shorter print runs, design versioning and shorter time to market, during a well-attended and informative Flexo Innovation Day. It also presented its broad portfolio of workflow automation and platemaking solutions.

Esko continues to be driven to pioneer and lead the flexo platemaking industry with solutions to automate the process and to improve flexo print quality.

Esko welcomed more than 80 industry executives from leading European trade shops and converter operations to its customer center in Ghent to experience the latest innovations the company has brought to market. Visitors took part in learning and discovering through demonstrations and interactive sessions conducted by Esko’s leadership team, product and application experts.

At the Flexo Innovation Day, industry professionals were able to experience first-hand how the latest generation in technology can transform the platemaking production process. They saw in action how the CDI Crystal 5080 XPS integrates and automates plate imaging, main and back exposure, and how the XPS 5080 UV LED exposure device adds increased consistency to the established Esko quality standard. Its intuitive touchscreen interface makes operation easy and increases plate room production efficiency.

Attendees were also able to observe the complete integration of flexo platemaking with workflow software with the new Automation Engine Device Manager. Full control over the flexo platemaking process is moved further upstream into prepress for increased efficiencies. They inspected beautiful print samples produced with the new screening and platemaking technology that takes digital flexo to the next quality level.

“It was great to welcome leading experts from all over Europe to our headquarters and share our vision for the flexo industry, and show how our innovations simplify the flexo platemaking process," says Udo Panenka, Esko president. "In today’s production environment, with continuously decreasing average print run lengths, it is essential to make the platemaking process as efficient as possible. The industry is always looking for ways to produce plates faster, more accurately, and more effectively with even higher quality. At Esko, we work hard to keep the innovation coming and bring products to market that exactly fulfill those demands.”

Visitors were very enthusiastic about the event. They could connect with industry peers, interact with leading technologies and discover the latest innovations and trends. Gyula Marlok, managing director at Schawk!, says, “We are planning to invest in the next three years. This event is very important to us to discover what is state-of-the-art.”

Panenka concludes, “The time is right to rethink flexo platemaking, with greater integration of process steps, more automation, and improved quality, consistency and ease of use. We need to bring our customers the benefits of more efficiently manage the digital flexo platemaking workflow. The full range of digital flexo innovations that Esko has recently launched is now commercially available. Industry feedback has been phenomenal, and we are seeing great interest from customers, trade press and partners from all over the globe.”